Wonderland
by ReeseCrawford21
Summary: Vivienne Gordon was devastated when her father died due to Hurricane Katrina, but what's worse was Tressler Insurance loopholing her family out of their settlement, causing her mother to have a psychotic break. Without her parents or money, she made a living as an illusionist, acting as a Robin Hood. Now she finds herself with four others to put on the world's best magic show ever.
1. Epigraph & A Little More Justice

**ACT I**

 _Epigraph_

" _ **Come in close…closer. Because the more you think you see, the easier it'll be to fool you. Because what is seeing? You're looking but what you're really doing is filtering, interpreting, searching for meaning. My job? To take that most precious of gifts you give to me - your attention - and use it against you." ~ J. Daniel Atlas**_

" _ **We found Wonderland, you and I got lost in it. And we pretended it could last forever. We found Wonderland, you and I got lost in it. And life was never worse, but never better." ~ Taylor Swift, Wonderland**_

 **ACT I**

CHAPTER ONE

 _A LITTLE MORE JUSTICE_

 _NEW YORK_

"Hey everyone! You ready for some magic?" the dark-blond haired 23 year old asked inside the bar.

Motorcyclists, beer-drinkers, cops, judges, and even the mayor hollered and cheered as she made her way onto the small platform. The black high-heeled boots she wore that ran up to her knees on her 5'6" frame, clacked along the wooden floor. The men in the room whistled as she took off her top hat which accessorized her strapless black taffeta dress that swept just below her mid-thigh. She threw the hat behind stage, but not before she extracted a long, thick black wand from it.

Glancing between the wand and the crowd, she questioned, "Do you guys honestly think I _need_ this?"

"No!" the crowd shouted back.

She forced a smile, and continued with the magic show, doing a few card tricks. Even though, she hated doing this, it was giving her money to feed herself. By eleven o'clock, it was time for the finale.

"Now for my final act, I'm going to burn someone's money," she announced. "Who's willing to be my volunteer?"

There was hesitation in the men's eyes as they turned to one another, unsure of what would happen. However, one brave soul stood up…the mayor of the town. A corrupt man, to say the least, taking more money from the townspeople than what he actually needed and giving it to " _charity_ ". In other words, he put the money aside for a rainy day to buy himself earthly goods. Some of the goods included: a plane; several electronics; new property; and even a few businesses.

He owned half the town in a manner of speaking. The reason he found himself going on stage was the fact that he simply wanted to waste a little money. He had enough of it to spend on a few drinks (meaning of course probably two to four), so what was the harm in handing money to the young magician? In the back of his mind; however, he knew she wouldn't be able to actually burn his money, she wouldn't be _that_ stupid.

As he walked onto the platform, he failed to notice the growing smirk of the young girl, who offered her hand to help him.

"What's your name, sir?" she inquired.

"Bill," the mayor answered.

"Bill Clinton?" the magician asked, jokingly. The audience laughed a little before she resumed.

"Well, Bill. Are you ready for me to burn some of your money?"

"I guess," Mayor Bill Jones shrugged.

She smiled brightly before she held out her hand saying, "How 'bout 20 bucks? That seem fair?"

He reached into his back pocket, pulling out his wallet. Instead of a 20, he gave her an even 200 with two $100 bills. "Wow, sir. You are very generous," she said with wide hazel eyes.

He cracked a smile, cockily as she folded the two bills in half.

"Now Bill, I want you to tell me what you think is going to happen to your money."

"Well, I think you're going to put some alcohol and salt on my money, and then set it on fire, but not so it'll burn," he stated, simply.

"Hmm, not bad, not bad. You do some debunking in your time?"

He shrugged, "A little."

She chuckled, "A little? So, you're saying that these", she holds up the dollar bills between her index and middle fingers, "won't catch fire, and burn, if I don't put some alcohol and salt on them?"

The older man thinks about it, before he nods. She snaps her fingers once. No one expected the money to actually burn in between her fingers, which is what made the trick worth it. The money lit up with orange and yellow flames, causing the mayor to flinch back in shock, realizing she is truly burning his money. He lunges forward to catch his money, but she drops it to the ground where it burns up completely, disappearing altogether.

He stared down at the floor before glaring back up at the petite woman in front of him. "Why, you little-" he began, but she wagged her finger back and forth, making a 'tsk' sound.

"I don't appreciate that language, Mr. Mayor. This is for your own good, I don't think you need all that money in your vault, right? So, I'm gonna do you a favor and give it back to these poor people."

Before the Mayor could retort, the room exploded with dollar bills coming out of every crook and cranny.

"Oh! Oh my! Is that-Is that your money, Mr. Mayor?" she said in mock shock, placing her hand over her cheek.

The mayor lunged forward, but found himself unable to, due to his foot being chained to the platform.

"Well, that's unfortunate for you. So I can thankfully say that there's a little more _justice_ in the world now, eh? Au revoir, Monsieur Jones!" With that said, she blew him a kiss as smoke slipped from the cracks in the floor, twisting and turning around her figure before smoke completely enveloped her, leaving not a trace of the magician around.

However, the dark-blond made her way out the backdoor of the club, casually walking down the street, with a cautious hand on her purse. Down the alleyway, she accidentally bumped into a man in a blue hoodie. "Sorry," she apologized graciously to the man. She quickly hailed a cab before seating herself inside the vehicle in the bustling city of New York City.

As she sat down, she noticed a tarot card in the pocket of her bag. "Well, hello there. How'd you get in here?" she mumbled quietly to it, taking hold of the card. It read 'Justice' on it, and when she turned it on the other side it had the Eye of Horus with an address below.

"The _Eye_ ," she whispered with wide hazel eyes.

"What was that?" the old man driving the taxi asked politely.

"Oh, nothing, just some guy's phone number," she lied simply as she continued reading and re-reading the card from front to back.

 **March 29**

 **4:44 PM**

 **45 East Evan St**

 **NY, NY**


	2. Meeting Others At East Evan St

CHAPTER TWO

 _MEETING OTHERS ON 45 EAST EVAN ST_

The dark-blond haired woman awoke from her slumber when her phone began ringing next to her on her bedside table. She groaned in frustration as she flipped to her side to read the angry bold red letters on her alarm clock. 12:55. She quickly reached over and grabbed hold of her cell phone, pressing the answer button. Placing the phone over my ear, I answered, "Hello?"

"Good morning, sis!" the two twin siblings of the woman cried into the phone.

Due to the loud noise, she retreated the phone away from her face. She brought it back once it was over.

"Hey, what's up?" she questioned.

"What? We can't say hi to our big sister?" her younger brother asked back.

"You can, but you usually want something from me," the blond stated.

"Not this time," her sister sung into the cell.

"We just wanted to say that we got jobs!"

"That's great!" the blond exclaimed. "I'm so happy for you guys!"

"Thanks, Viv!" "Thank you, Vivienne."

A few minutes after being on the phone, the blond, Vivienne, hung up on her siblings, and got out of bed to make herself a quick breakfast.Once she was finished with her oatmeal breakfast, she went into her bathroom to take a shower.

She picked out a cute outfit for the day: her grey, short-sleeved top; dark blue-grey jeans which complemented her teal sweater and grey, white, and teal-colored scarf; finally, her grey purse; and her knee-length light grey boots which matched her shirt; and left it out on the bed.

Once she was finished showering, Vivienne changed into her clothing for the day, and curled her hair a bit at the ends. Grabbing hold of the dragonfly necklace on her nightstand, she clipped it behind her neck. The necklace wrapped around her neck and hung near her chest.

Satisfied, Vivienne made her way out of her apartment, making sure to lock it up before she left, and headed downtown. It took her thirty minutes to walk to her favorite coffee shop down near East Evan Street, and another twenty-five waiting in line to grab her cup of coffee.

She strode toward her destination, crossing the street on her way, and found the building she was seeking. She entered with confidence and headed up the stairs. Halfway there, she heard voices above her, and she couldn't help, but overhear.

"Thanks for keeping me honest. That wasn't mentalism, by the way. It was just an observation. Second observation: you are beautiful," someone spoke.

"That's good, that's very nice. Very well polished, nice bit. J. Daniel Atlas. Nice to meet you," another voiced.

Vivienne managed to catch the last portion as one of the gentlemen in a fedora flipped off another man with long, brown hair. She giggled, finding it ridiculous how grown men still continue acting as if they were children. The three adults turned to the newcomer. A woman was with the two men, with straight red hair, and chocolate brown eyes, who just grinned in relief that she wasn't the only woman there.

"Hey," Vivienne waved awkwardly. "Sorry to interrupt."

"You got one of these, too?" the redhead asked, holding up her tarot card with The Eye on the back.

Viv nodded, and retrieved hers from her bag, and held it up.

"I'm Henley," the redheaded woman greeted.

"Vivienne," the blond answered, while the two men in the corner decided to continue their meaningless squabbling.

"Look, I know who you are, Merritt McKinney," Atlas proceeded with the previous conversation with the fedora-man. "And I just want to say that I'm not interested in you doing your mentalism thing on me. Especially when we don't know who brought us here or even if it's real- "

"Shh!" Merritt silenced him, placing a finger over his own lips before moving his hands to the side of his head. "Hold on, I'm sensing…I'm sensing you are a," he points two index fingers at Atlas, "Control freak."

Vivienne smirked, silently agreeing that Daniel Atlas was indeed a control freak.

"I'm sorry, have we met before?" Danny asked, while the woman scoffed.

"It doesn't take a mentalist to figure that out. You _are_ a control freak!"

"Well, I take that as a compliment."

Viv rolled her green orbs at Atlas' antics. He was getting quite annoying.

The woman stated, turning slightly to include Vivienne into the conversation, "Only he would take that as a compliment."

"Okay, great, good, another compliment."

"Is that why you two are no longer are a couple?"

Once again, the three turned to the blond, with Atlas and the woman denying at the same time. The redhead turned to Vivienne, saying, "He used to saw me in half," while doing hand motions to act it out.

"She was a very good assistant," Daniel added in. The redhead placed a hand on her hip, continuing, "But I was too fat for Danny."

"No, Henley," Danny shook his head. "I said that one time, because of the trap door."

"You built it this size," the woman, Henley said, making a small square with her hands.

"No one could fit in that," Vivienne stated, moving in between Atlas and Henley.

"Exactly! Thank you! And do you know how hard it is to stay in those tiny little costumes?"

Vivienne nodded in response. Oh, she definitely knew what it was like being an assistant. Those costumes could be a real pain in the ass, literally.

"No, because I'm the main attraction," Atlas replied, rather cockily.

Merritt shook his head, disappointingly at Atlas and turned back to Henley. "So, this guy never made you feel special. And, trust me, you and you," he pointed to Vivienne as well. "deserve to be made to feel special." Viv's cheeks lit up light rose as she cracked a small grin.

"That's a really nice story," Danny interrupted. "Hope you guys enjoy each other's company." He turned to leave when someone else entered their group.

"No way!" a young brunette man smiled as he recognized the magician. "J. Daniel Atlas? Dude, I've seen everything that you have ever done. You're like…I idolize you, man, seriously."

"From a true fan," Daniel grinned and took the young man's hand to shake. "It's so nice to meet you."

"I'm Jack, by the way," the new newcomer introduced.

"Question," Merritt spoke up, holding up his card. "Did you get one of these?"

"Uh, yeah," Jack reached into his back pocket and pulls out his card, reading it aloud, "Death."

Henley put in, "The High Priestess," holding hers up.

"I'm the Lover," Daniel said, raising his eyebrows. At this, Henley coughed out, "3 seconds!" causing Vivienne to smile a little more. She had a feeling she and Henley would be great friends.

Everyone turned to her next. "Justice," she held her tarot card up for them to see.

And finally, Merritt told them, "Hermit."

"So, what are we…are we waiting for someone?" Jack asked. "Why are we just- "

"Door's locked," Merritt, Atlas, and Henley said together.

"Oh no, nothing's ever locked," the youngest of the crew stated, making his way in front of them, pulling out his pick locking tools, and opened the door without the key. The five entered the apartment, each equipped with flashlights of their own, and walked down the hallway, passing the dirty, old rooms on their way to the biggest room of the whole apartment.

As each of them made their way into the sizable room, Jack shivered, rubbing his arms with his hands. "Man, it's freezing in here."

Vivienne honestly didn't mind the cold, her excitement was too much for her to notice the temperature of the room. Instead, she walked toward the middle of the room, where there was a symbol of some sort carved into the floor, a white rose lying on the floor next to a note card, and a clear vase a few feet away.

"What is this?" Henley asked, as the five, one by one, flooded the room. Daniel walked to the symbol, but stopped just in front of it to pick up the note.

"What's it say?" Merritt questioned, making his way around the group crowding Atlas and to the random vase on the floor.

Daniel opened it up as Vivienne read, "Now you don't."

"'A rose by any other name'," Henley quoted Shakespeare as she took the rose from its spot and placed it inside the vase. As soon as the stem hit the bottom of the vase, the water drained out of the vase and directed itself to the symbol in the floor.

"Whoa, guys, what's happening?" Jack inquired as the water filled up the carved symbol. When it completed its course, the part of the floor the symbol was on dropped, and haze filled the room, just below their feet.

"It's gas!" Jack shouted, backing away immediately. Vivienne shook her head in disagreement while Merritt spoke her words. "Relax, it's just dry ice."

"Wait, what do you think this is all about?" Daniel asked, looking at Vivienne, who shrugged her shoulders.

"Hang on, hang on," Merritt said, holding his hand to his head, and closing his eyes to concentrate more. Jack, Henley, even Daniel were all waiting in anticipation while Vivienne took a closer look at the haze, now twirling around as it rose higher into the air.

"I got nuthin'."

"Okay, thank you. Thank you for the delay," Atlas said, annoyed with the mentalist.

"I'm just trying to create the space for wisdom," Merritt explained, while Vivienne, once more rolled her eyes, and went over to the light switch.

"Oh, okay, so you're like Buddha, if he wasn't so enlightened," Atlas insulted.

"Oh, and you're like Jesus, if he was arrogant, and all of his miracles were fake," Merritt shot back.

Henley interrupted the two, "Okay, lovebirds, get a room. Danny, be honest, did you do this?"

"No," Daniel responded, but then quickly turned his gaze to Vivienne, giving her a questioning look.

"Don't look at me," Vivienne held up her arms. "I had nothing to do with this."

"What about you," Atlas pointed his flashlight in the direction of Jack, who held up his hands. "No, I wish."

Merritt questioned, "Why didn't anyone ask me if I did it?" Vivienne bites her lip and turns back to the light, trying to turn it on, however, it doesn't work.

"Electricity's out," Jack stated.

The blond shot back, "Brilliant deduction, Sherlock." She noticed Merritt move a lightbulb a little before beams of light shot across the room into the middle of the symbol. Vivienne spotted little projectors in five corners to bring the bigger picture together.

"What is all this?" Henley inquired, moving closer to the hologram, showing them everything they needed to know.

"Blueprints?" Vivienne responded, unsure.

"They're incredible," Atlas gawked at the plans.

"I wonder who did this," Jack muttered.

"I don't know, but I wanna meet them," Henley answered.

Viv took a closer look, and realized, "It's a show."

Daniel leaned closer and touched the holographic symbol floating in the middle of the plans.


	3. A Talk With Tressler

_8 WEEKS LATER_

She was doing it again…biting her bottom lip, and messing with her outfit once more. It was her anxiety playing with her again. Vivienne smoothed out the black velvet skirt, pulled up her tank top more, so as not to reveal a lot of cleavage, and buttoned up her blouse, except for the last button.

She had put on natural-looking makeup earlier, and added cherry red lipstick for more effect. She knew there was no reason to worry…it was just the fact that she didn't want to meet with Arthur Tressler.

Her reasons for this were her own, and she swore she would not speak of those reasons unless they were deemed necessary. For now, though, she was more concerned about making a memorable impression in front of the face of Tressler Insurance.

Daniel had scheduled a meeting with Mr. Tressler around three weeks ago, before they finally got back to the five magicians two days ago.

Merritt and Henley suggested Vivienne go with Daniel to meet Tressler, this was mostly because the two were worried Daniel would get too cocky and end up pissing off Mr. Tressler, instead of getting his support.

They were to meet with Tressler in his office at three o'clock sharp, just before he went home for the day, of course after he did nothing of utter importance, besides sitting in his chair and calling back insurance owners, claiming they had not a thing to worry about. These were all lies, of course, and the illusionists knew this.

Don't ask, otherwise the magic would be ruined. Not everybody likes spoilers to a good magic trick.

"Quit fidgeting, Vivienne!" Atlas suddenly exclaimed, stopping his pacing for a hot minute.

Vivienne jumped at his voice, breaking through her own thoughts.

He seemed to have noticed this, and quickly added, "You're stressing me out."

She nodded, and quickly shifted her legs on the kitchen stool, her left on top of her right, suddenly feeling insecure due to Daniel's outburst.

The front door to the apartment opened revealing Merritt and Jack, both in tuxedos. It took the group two weeks to finally settle on an apartment to live in together, since they all lived in different cities, excluding Vivienne and Jack.

The apartment was certainly big enough for all five of them to live in, with three master bedrooms, one of the masters had a bathroom all to its own, and two smaller rooms. There was small living room space, two small bathrooms, and a medium-sized kitchen with an island. It certainly felt like a home to Vivienne.

"What are we waiting on? Car's parked outside," Jack told the two, while pointing behind him out the door.

"Henley," Atlas and Vivienne said together.

With that said, Henley walked out of her room, one of the masters, and approached the four crowding around the door now. She wore a black sheath dress with a black jacket, black pantyhose, polished ebony three-inch heels, simple jewelry, and a black purse that hung on her shoulder. Natural makeup had been applied with coral colored lipstick.

Without more words exchanged, the five locked up the apartment and headed for the black 2008 Nissan Rogue. It didn't take long to arrive at the insurance company and park in the garage, their only issue was worrying about how long the line would be outside of Tressler's office.

The line would most likely be filled with people trying to sell their products or trying to obtain endorsements, whereas the five magicians wanted to seek an audience with Mr. Tressler to support them with their show.

Once they made it to the higher levels, they found themselves in an empty waiting room. Daniel turned to the others with a confused look resting on his face before Vivienne and Merritt shrugged at him.

The ringleader of the five, Atlas, went to the secretary's desk and spoke, "Excuse me, ma'am. We're here to see Mr. Tressler."

The woman continued typing up on her computer as she responded, "Name?"

"Atlas. Daniel Atlas."

Henley elbowed him in the ribs, making him clear his throat before continuing, "And, uh, Vivienne Gordon."

She looked down at her clipboard, and nodded before pressing a button on her phone machine.

"Yes?" a voice on the other end asked.

"Mr. Tressler, you have a Daniel Atlas and a Vivienne Gordon here to see you."

"Ah yes, please send them in."

With a "yes sir", the secretary allowed Daniel and Vivienne into the office ahead, while Henley, Jack, and Merritt sat down on the couch in the waiting room.

When Vivienne turned her head to take a quick glance at them, Merritt casually gave her a thumbs up, Jack nodded his head as if to say "You got this", and Henley gave her the brightest smile.

Vivienne spun back around to see Mr. Tressler in his chair with a fake smile on his face. The blond did the same as she shook the older man's hand and sat down in the chair in front of his desk.

She crossed her legs, professionally before Daniel began, "Thank you for meeting with us, Mr. Tressler."

"Now, from what I heard, you want my support in creating a magic show?" Mr. Tressler went directly to the issue at hand, rather urgently.

"Yes sir. There are five of us, and we would like to just bring a little magic to some cities-" Daniel started before Vivienne interrupted.

"What he means to say, sir, is that bringing together five solo acts to create a magic show production would be very profitable."

His interest piqued and Vivienne knew he was almost biting on the bait, but was still a little hesitant, so she continued.

"Don't you think a magic show of five, not to brag, talented magicians would bring in an incredible amount of people? And the more people there are, the more money they'll have in their back pockets. Just give us a chance, please."

TWO HOURS LATER

"Are the other members here?" Mr. Tressler questioned as he handed a pen to Vivienne.

"Yes sir, they're sitting outside," she responded.

"Marcy?" Tressler called on his desk phone.

"Yes, Mr. Tressler?"

"Send in the others that came with Mr. Atlas and Ms. Gordon. "

"Right away, sir."

Within a couple minutes, Henley, Jack, and Merritt entered the office calmly and collectively. They introduced themselves professionally to Arthur Tressler while Daniel changed the ink cartridge of Tressler's pen secretly.

Daniel quickly wrote down his name on the contract, then Vivienne. When the others joined them, they had all signed and handed the contract to Mr. Tressler.

They shook hands with the older man before heading out, however, Vivienne noticed Daniel still holding the pen, switching the cartridge back. He screwed it all the way before the blond grasped the pen from his hands and made her way back to the desk.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Tressler. I forgot your pen. Here you go," she said as she placed the pen in the pencil and pen cup sitting neatly on his desk.

"Thank you, my dear," the old man smiled.

"No, thank you, Mr. Tressler," the blond winked as she made her way out the door.

"Oh, and Ms. Gordon?"

The blond turned back to the white-haired British man.

"What is the name of this group of magicians performing?" he questioned, a pen in hand to write it down on the contract.

With a smug smirk, Vivienne answered, "The Five Horsemen."

On the way to the garage to grab the car, Daniel asked rather rudely, "What the hell was that?"

Vivienne stopped in her tracks and spun around, sass filling her posture with a hand on her hip.

"What the hell was what?" she questioned back innocently, her eyebrow raised and lips pursed.

"Let's see if you remember correctly, um, oh yes. I was supposed to be the one talking to Tressler, not you," Atlas pointed accusingly.

"If I recall correctly, I'm not your assistant, Atlas. So don't expect me to act like one," Vivienne shot back.

His mouth was wide open to retort when Vivienne spoke, "Shut up, and get in the car, Daniel."

With that said, she walked quickly to the car and took her seat on the passenger side next to Merritt, who was trying to hold back his laughter, along with Jack, who was sure to face Daniel's wrath, since the youngest was in the back of the car. Merritt started up the Nissan while holding out his fist, which Vivienne gladly fist-bumped back as Daniel finally made his way into the backseat, his face deep red from embarrassment.


End file.
